Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents and the question of gender

Abstract

This chapter addresses how the concept of gender is used in research on LGBT parents and their children. It examines how gender is theorized and constructed in the research, before going on to challenge a fixed or essentialist view of gender that may be found in work on the gender roles of LGBT parents, the development of egalitarian parenting roles, the gender socialization of their children, and the attribution and negotiation of gender nonconformity. Based upon interactionist, feminist, and queer accounts, this chapter proposes that gender is enacted and imputed in everyday settings. The author draws upon his own research on foster care and adoption by lesbians and gay men to demonstrate the shifting meanings of gender in various contexts, and to challenge gendered normativities that are present in much of the existing research on LGBT parents.